Every week, interns – or “mentors” – from EMU and James Madison University meet with kids at the Boys & Girls’ Teen Center at the Lucy F. Simms Continuing Education Center. The program uses group discussions and the occasional field trip to encourage peaceful communication.

Fifteen to 20 teens are participating in the program this year and most mentors do the program for a single semester. One exception is Jodie Geddes, an EMU graduate student, who is returning this spring.

“I love hearing their stories and how they begin to open up to you after just a few days,” Geddes said. “Also hearing them talk about the things that they love.”

Geddes thinks the youth she works with are “really incredible.” They range from 13 to 17 years old and have come to communicate more during group discussions.

Agape-satyagraha was developed by One Earth Peace, a Maryland-based leadership training organization that partners with the Church of the Brethren, and came to the Boys & Girls Club two years ago. EMU began its partnership last year.

Agape translates from classical Greek as “love,” and is referred to in the Bible as selfless devotion or charity. Satyagraha is the philosophy of passive resistance, popularized by Mohandas Gandhi.

The program has religious and secular curricula that interns can use, although Geddes said she works with the latter version.

“The good thing about this program is it’s very malleable,” said Geddes, who is pursuing a master’s in conflict transformation and wants to work with restorative聽justice in schools.

“We’ve been talking about how we can be nice to each other,” said Harrisonburg High School student Carlos Moyet, 14, who joined the program last year with his 12-year-old brother.

Most participants are enrolled in public schools and do not need to formally register for the program.

“What I learned in agape was don’t hate, and appreciate and love,” said Elijah Pinedo, 12, a Thomas Harrison Middle School student. “Don’t try to use violence … try to use words.”

Geddes admitted that asking teenagers to talk about concepts like “anger queues” and respectful disagreement does not always come naturally.
She also acknowledged that not all cultures view nonviolence as acceptable in every situation.

“How do I allow the youth to tell their own stories and also feel comfortable saying, `Miss Jodie, I don’t agree with you,'” is something she said she asks herself.

Originally from Jamaica, Geddes has worked previously with refugees, experience she said that helps her connect with students who either are immigrants or whose parents are.

Courtesy of the Daily News Record, Jan. 19, 2015

An annual and favorite tradition among the EMU community is a trip to Sprague’s Barbershop in downtown Harrisonburg, where Tyrone Sprague gives haircuts along with lively conversation on the sixth floor of a Court Square building. Sunlight streamed in through lacy beige curtains as a group of EMU students filed in to learn and discuss the history of racism in Harrisonburg.

鈥淎merica’s original sin is that America was established as a white society,鈥� with slavery being a key foundation of the nation, said visit facilitator Stan Maclin, vice president of the Northeast Neighborhood Association, a community group working to keep that area of Harrisonburg clean, safe, and crime-free.

In the 1950s and 60s, the northeast corner of Harrisonburg 鈥� where Rose’s and Autozone are now 鈥� was a bustling neighborhood of black culture and business. Then came Project R4. Cities across the country were given the opportunity to receive development funds for 鈥渦rban renewal鈥� projects in areas labeled as slums. Harrisonburg’s black neighborhood was declared eminent domain, residents were displaced, and their land sold to commercial developers.

Maclin cited King’s 鈥淏eyond Vietnam鈥� address in response to structural racism such as Project R4: 鈥淚 am convinced,鈥� King wrote, 鈥渢hat if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.鈥�

Sprague, giving a haircut during the visit, said that he sees this 鈥渞evolution of values鈥� happening in younger generations. Across different ethnicities, 鈥渢hey eat together, they laugh together, they go dancing together. In the 1960s and 70s, you didn’t see that,鈥� said Sprague, who grew up in Farmville, Virginia. Sprague remembers that his mother 鈥� and white culture 鈥� taught him to fear repercussions for looking a white woman in the eyes if he passed her on the street.

The celebration also brought visitors to the EMU campus and the local community, including The Rev. Dr. Nikita Okembe-Ra Imani, a prominent poet, hip-hop artist, musician, and black history scholar from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Speaking at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church during a Sunday service, Imani credited King’s confidence in the face of such ingrained mistrust to his faith in God. When we see 鈥渕ayhem and destruction, the kind of sickness without compassion,鈥� said Imani, 鈥渢he world is calling for the people of confidence.鈥� King’s ideology and strategies were direct results of his pacifistic Christianity, Imani explained. 鈥淭he system had tanks. The system had batons 鈥� the system had financial power. King had the Word.鈥�

At the next day鈥檚 MLK Day chapel service, Imani called all Christians to join together. Cultures of violence, he said, are ultimately impotent before Christians, who 鈥渂ring power and brotherhood where there is hatred and malevolence.鈥�

Accompanying Imani to Bethel AME and also during the on-campus MLK Day service was the EMU gospel choir and newly installed Harrisonburg mayor Chris Jones.

Jones, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), led an afternoon community program at Lucy Simms Center (formerly Lucy Simms School, this segregated school taught area black children from 1939-1966).

The program included two songs by the MLK Celebration Choir. EMU members of this community group included campus chaplain , program assistant , and , of .

Thomas co-chaired the MLK Celebration planning committee with student Christian Parks. The committee wanted to 鈥渃reate a celebration of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. by concentrating on who he was as a person as well as what he did for our country,鈥� she said.

鈥淭he hope is that King’s vision and dream can inspire more dreams and more efforts,鈥� said Parks. 鈥淚n the gathered beloved community, I believe we can dream an America that truly finds the beauty in all things.鈥�

By Melvin Mason, Daily New-Record

Students in a class at 草莓社区 this semester will unearth some of the area’s past.

, an American history teacher at the university, will guide students in his "methods of history" course to learn and record information about black people who live in Harrisonburg and the Shenandoah Valley.

The students, he says, likely will find themselves sifting through papers and talking with families to uncover more about black history.

Overwhelming Quest Awaits

The students will have different areas of focus, Sawin said. It will involve looking for documents and artifacts about neighborhoods and talking with descendants of black communities.

One group will research Zenda, a community north of Harrisonburg where former slaves settled after the Civil War. Sawin says students will try to talk to descendants of former Zenda residents to find out more about the life and times of that community.

The class traveled to Long’s Chapel Brethren Church, an old wooden church building considered the center of the Zenda community. Al Jenkins, who lives in South Carolina, bought Long’s Chapel last year and plans to restore the building and turn it into a historical center for black history.

Sawin says his students will also look into an urban development project in the 1960s that removed several black-owned homes. Students also will examine the life of Lucy Simms, a former slave born in 1855 who taught in Harrisonburg and the surrounding area from 1877 to 1934.

Sawin expects his students may find out more about blacks in Harrisonburg and the Valley, so the topics will not be limited.

The teacher sees a lot more interest in local history and hopes the project will spur others into uncovering more about black life in the Valley.

"We don’t want the information to sit in an office," he said.

Students Looking For Answers

For Sawin, the project to find information about the people living in Zenda and elsewhere is "overwhelming to all of us."

"The students are excited," said Sawin, a teacher at EMU for five years. "It’s taking what they’ve learned abstractly in the books, and it makes it real. It’s making history more complex."

Jonathan Alley, 20, a junior in Sawin’s class, looks forward to gathering more information so it can be used for study of black history. He already has gathered information from the gravestones in the Long’s Chapel cemetery, he says.

Alley says he has plenty of questions, including what the freed blacks did after emancipation and how many Zenda residents were slaves.

The project "drew me in right away," said Alley, who lives outside of Harrisonburg. "There’s mystery behind it, the thought that these people were all here and played an important role" in shaping the Valley.

Melanie Pritchard, a 20-year-old junior studying communications, wants to know more about why Zenda was all but evacuated in the 1920s.

"From what I understand, it’s going to be a lot of research," Pritchard said. "I like it and love getting into local history. I can’t wait to find out what’s happened here and finding out about local history."